CHAPEL HILL - Chapel Hill investigators circulated a video surveillance photo to law-enforcement agencies Friday as they followed leads in the killing of Eve Carson.

Durham police watch Commander Sgt. L. B. Evans said the department received the photo from Chapel Hill police, but declined to say what the image contained. Other law enforcement agencies in the Triangle acknowledged receiving e-mail from Chapel Hill containing information about the case, but officials declined to talk about them in detail.

Chapel Hill Police Chief Brian Curran, reached at his home late Friday night, would not discuss the killing of the UNC-Chapel Hill student body president.

Earlier Friday, Curran backed away from calling Carson's death random, instead saying investigators simply don't have evidence to the contrary. "At this point we have no evidence to believe that it was a targeted crime," Curran said.

Curran did not rule out a random crime but also did not advise residents or students to take unusual precautions.

"There are criminals that roam among society on a fairly regular basis," he said. "It's not just Chapel Hill. ... Our officers are out there just doing the normal job that they do every day."

Carson's next-door neighbor, UNC-Chapel Hill sophomore Anna Pullian, said she doubted the crime was random.

"Everyone knew who she was," Pullian said. "Practically everyone on campus would know her face. It seems to be too much of a coincidence for it to be random."

The UNC-CH Board of Trustees is offering a $25,000 reward for information that leads to the killer's arrest.

On Friday police released a photograph of Carson's 2005 Toyota Highlander, found Thursday less than two blocks from her house and less than a mile from where they found her body. Police would like to hear from anyone who may have seen the vehicle between 1:30 a.m. Wednesday and midday Thursday.

Investigators said Carson, 22, had been shot in the right temple, the Associated Press reported Friday.

Curran said investigators have not found Carson's keys or a wallet or purse containing her identification. They are examining her cell phone and recent financial records.

Statistics say that random killings are rare.

About two-thirds of female homicide victims are killed by people they know, about a quarter are killed by people of unknown relationship, and less than 10 percent are killed by confirmed strangers, according to U.S. Department of Justice statistics. About one-third are killed by intimate partners.

Curran said he didn't know of anyone who might have been angry with Carson.

"She was a very attractive person, a very popular person, so we're certainly not ruling that out," Curran said. "As far as I know, she wasn't having a problem with anybody."

The killing sent ripples throughout Chapel Hill.

A week after holding a Crime Watch meeting in the Pine Knolls neighborhood in response to another shooting, the nonprofit EmPOWERment Inc. announced Friday its plan to organize a townwide Public Community Watch meeting. A date has not been set.

"With the recent rash of crime in our town, ... we all may be feeling vulnerable," said Deanna Carson, director of community programs, who is not related Eve Carson.

In Chapel Hill and Carrboro, only the Northside neighborhood has a monthly community-watch meeting. A fatal shooting there in February is one of nine homicides in Orange and Chatham counties since late November.

"This might be unprecedented for us," District Attorney James Woodall said. "It's a concern, it's tragic, but I don't know that there's a pattern there."

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